Czeslaw and Carol Have Semi-Affectionate Hijinx
by TheCrampReturns
Summary: Title says it all; Czeslaw finds it nearly impossible to relate to most people, children most of all. That's subject to change, however, after a chance meeting with a cute young girl who's very much his opposite. Czes begins to slowly build positive feelings toward this girl, and circumstances make it so he has plenty of time to get used to her. Collab with my sister.
1. Czeslaw Meets A Girl and Murders a Mouse

Czeslaw Meyer was not a child. Well, he was, but he wasn't really. Immortality may have forced the visage of a child onto him for all eternity, and by objective measurements he supposed he would never really be an adult, a couple centuries of life had made him about as far from a child in spirit as was possible.

At least, that's what he assumed, being as indifferent to the minds of children (and people in general) as he was. That more than anything is what made him feel different; his lack of caring. In that way Czes wasn't just not a child, he was practically inhuman. The year was 1931, he was over 230 years old, and he could count on one hand the number of living people he felt any genuine affection for. Maybe two hands, if he was taking a moment to fondly remember the short time he had spent with Mary Beriam aboard The Flying Pussyfoot.

This was, admittedly, something that happened often, though the reason for that had thoroughly escaped him. He had known the girl for maybe a few hours, tops, yet those few hours were ingrained in a head that would sometimes look back on entire decades as nothing but a blur. He had actually taken to asking Ennis about it.

"Well, it sounds to me as if this girl you met was a friend." The young woman said. "The way you describe it, it seems as though you enjoyed yourself, at least a little bit. I don't mean to offend, but enjoyment isn't something I see you express that often. Perhaps it was just the experience of being with another child for the first time in such a long while that made you really feel like one again. I presume experiencing that time with your young acquaintance put you in that mindset once more."

At the time, Czeslaw had ignored most of this theory, choosing to home in on the fact that he was NOT a child, before he was preemptively interrupted by Ennis' significant other, Firo.

"Or maybe," said the man with a cheeky grin, "Czes's a little dizzy with the Beriam dame"

Czes glared daggers at Firo, while Ennis simply tilted her head, curious as to his meaning. Czes had been living with the couple for a months at that point, and he had long ago decided that Firo was closer to a child than he would ever be.

The memory made the thing-in-a-boy's-body sigh. That conversation had been a few days prior, and he had spent the intervening time thinking about Ennis' meaning. For having the least worldly experience amongst them (on account of actually being less than a year old), she had raised a potentially solid point. Maybe it was simply the presence of a kid that made him feel like one again. Personally, he didn't wasn't to believe it.

* * *

At the moment, Czes was walking through the city by his lonesome, having assured Firo and Ennis that he was just going for a stroll and wouldn't require any company. As he looked around him, he saw the usual faceless rabble that he had come to see the whole mortal world as over the years. For the life of him, Czeslaw couldn't bring himself to relate at all to their trivial endeavors, and deep down he knew that was his fault.

For so long, Czes' life had been punctuated with a single goal, a goal that had had its brakes cut out several months ago. He hadn't yet adjusted to the idea of living a normal everyday life, and as someone destined to live forever regardless of the world around him, he saw very little reason to do so. He looked around and saw hard-working average Joe's, shady businessmen, and upstart thugs, all working toward the same basic goal of making ends meat. Or was it ends _meet_? Czeslaw had never bothered to figure out the workings of that particular expression.

Shaking his head vigorously, the thing-in-a-boy's-body decided he cared not for any type of meat/meet. Why should he when his survival was assured? Why should he feel the need to do anything at all?

The nature of Czeslaw's immortality was complex, but one thing he knew above all else was that he could still feel pain. He had many, many years to feel it over and over again, and his pain threshold had risen steadily over those years, to the point where certain things that should hurt barely even registered.

With that said, though it didn't hurt at all when a little girl in a white flapper's outfit ran smack into him and sent him crashing to the ground, it still caught him off guard.

"Wha-?! Hey! Watch where you're going!" He shouted in irritation, as the girls todd up and dusted herself off. The girl, with short, light brown hair and somewhat large grey eyes, wore a somewhat expensive white dress, which was odd for a time of poverty. She lowered her head in an apologetic bowing motion.

"I'm so sorry!" She cried. "Really, I am, but it's getting away!"

Czeslaw found himself curious as to what the girl was talking about, but as he raised himself to his feet she had already bolted off after what she was pursuing. Squinting his eyes just as the girl turned to run straight down an alley, he saw that the object of her pursuit was a little white mouse.

Part of Czes' brain told him to brush it off. This girl was obviously just another child playing an idiotic game with a stray animal, and it was neither pressing nor interesting enough to be his business. Yet at the same time, part of his brain couldn't help _but_ take an interest. An entire civil debate raged in his head within the space of maybe two seconds, before he eventually decided with a groan to observe this girl's escapades. It's not like he had anything better to do.

Turning into the alley, Czes saw the girl crouched over the mouse, which was caught between her and a brick wall. The first thing Czes noted was the girl's face. Granted, he couldn't see much of it from this angle, but as he got closer he found it different than what he expected. Experience taught him that when a child (or really, _anyone_) had cornered an animal, their default expression would be one of sadistic pleasure at the "fun" they were soon to commence with. Either that or smug confidence in their ability to corner such stupid creatures.

But this girl's face was neither. Instead, her eyes held nothing but pure, innocent curiosity. She reached out toward the mouse apprehensively, her movements nervous and careful. She obviously wanted the small creature in front of her to feel safe, and it seemed to work, as the mouse sniffed at her fingers, before allowing her to pet at it lightly. Getting closer to the girl, Czeslaw saw her curious expression morph to a kind grin.

"What are you doing?" He asked, making the girl shout in surprise as both her and the mouse whipped their heads toward him. Taking him in, the girl's face grew nervous again.

"Stay right there." She said to her mouse acquaintance, before turning back to Czeslaw.

"Is this about knocking you down earlier?" She asked, twiddling her hands behind her back and digging the front of her left shoe into the ground. "Cause I am, really sorry about that. Please don't tell on me! I'll lose points!""

"Huh?" Czeslaw questioned. He had honestly been so caught up in observing the girl that he had forgotten she even _had_ bumped into him. "No, I was just wondering what you were doing with that mouse is all."

"Oh!" The girl said, her expression reaching again for normalcy. She pressed a finger to her lips (careful to make sure it wasn't the one she had just touched a mouse with) as if contemplating her answer. "I'm not entirely sure you'd believe me if I told you."

"Why?" Czes asked, growing even more intrigued. "Is it something asinine?"

"U-um, no! At least, I don't think it is..." She said, lowering her head slightly again.

"Well, if it's not something that assumes I'm an idiot, feel free to tell me."

"This mouse," Carol said slowly, as she crouched down next to the furry object of discussion again, "is immortal. I think."

That sentence left Czeslaw slightly gobsmacked. He needed a moment to think of a follow-up question. Unfortunately that moment was long enough for the girl to grow a forlorn expression.

"I knew it." She grumbled, poking the mouse gently. "You _do_ think its stupid."

"N-no I don't!" Czes blurted out, more to himself then the girl. Like magic, the girl was facing him with a look of interest again.

"You don't?"

Czes was running mental gymnastics at this point. There was no back pedaling now. Either this girl was just loopy, or she somehow knew about immortality. Or both. Her lack of confidence suggested she wasn't playing some kind of trick on him... For starters, he supposed, he should probably figure out if she was an immortal herself.

"What's your name?" He asked.

"Um...Carol." The girl said, taken aback slightly by the topic change.

"Nice to meet you, Carol." Czes said, extending a hand that the Carol daintily took in her own. "My name's...Thomas."

Check that off the list. Had this Carol been an immortal, the laws of immortality would have forced Czeslaw to reveal his true name impulsively. So that begged the question of how she knew about it at all.

"What do you mean the mouse is immortal?" He asked, "How is that possible?"

It was here that Carol put her index finger to her lip again, clearly something she did when she was thinking. "Well, there's this news article that the Daily Days was working on a while back. More specifically, I was working on it..."

"You work at the Daily Days?" Czes asked with some genuine surprise. It seemed people from that paper had a habit of getting mixed up in his circles. He noted the look of pride on the girls face as she nodded and for once, understood it; children having to work in this day and age was by no means uncommon, but actually getting to write for such a paper was probably worth bragging about more than the countless zero-intelligence jobs out there. The job would also seem to explain her dress.

"We wrote the whole article about these immortal people who can't die living right under our noses in New York. It's all about where they came from and what they've been doing and...stuff."

"Ok..." said Czeslaw warily. "And what does that have to do with the mouse?"

"I saw it die once, then come back to life!"

Czes sighed. It was like absolutely everything in this damned town was immortal now. Firo and Ennis had told him the story of how they met, how Firo along with practically his entire family of Camorista had become exempt from death by drinking the same elixir that had granted him the same deal. It only figured that a choice amount of it would be wasted on such a small, insignificant creature.

But still, he had only this Carol's word to go on.

"How are you sure it's the same mouse?" He asked. The city was full to the brim with them after all.

"Well..." Carol said, "I'm not too sure, actually. It was just kind of an assumption."

Czes had to put effort into not rolling his eyes at that. "Well, why don't you kill it, as a test?"

The girl gasped, as if unbelieving that her conversation partner could suggest such a thing. "That would be awful! What if it turns out I'm wrong and it stays dead? Even if I'm right and it is immortal, I don't want to hurt it!"

Czes _couldn't_ hold back the eyeroll this time. "Then what was the point of chasing it?"

Carol offered a simple shrug. "I dunno. It felt kind of like running into an old friend..."

Looking around the alley, Czes saw a large plank of wood and grabbed it.

"Trust me," He said as he approached the mouse, "if it is immortal, it should get accustomed to pain sooner rather than later."

With that, he smashed the mouse into a bloody pulp before Carol could do anything more than scream, splattering blood everywhere. He observed what used to be the mouse closely, before turning to see the horrified look on Carol's face. A moment of silence passed, before Carol grew a grimace to rival the like's of Czes' own.

"_EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW_!" She shouted, shaking her hands in front of her as if trying to will the blood away. "**_I think some of its blood got in my mouth!_**"

Even Czeslaw had to shudder with disgust at that, as the girl quickly stood up and began to run in panicked circles.

"Ew ew ew ew ew ew ew! I'm gonna die! Get some disinfectant! _GET SOME IODINE!_"

Her ranting, which the voice in the back of Czes' mind found highly amusing, was interrupted by the some of all the mice's blood rushing back into its body, the mouse a functioning whole again in a matter of seconds. Carol's screams stopped abruptly, and suddenly her face was positively glowing. She kneeled down next to the mouse again and shouted "It IS you!"

Her exuberance was short lived, as the mouse quickly bolted away from them. She sighed, before turning to Czes with a glare.

"What?" The boy asked.

"You didn't have to do that, Thomas." She said.

Czes sighed.

"I'm sorry." He said. Looking at the girl's hurt face, it occurred to him that he may have actually meant it.

"But hey," he said with a laugh that was oddly genuine, "At least you don't have to worry about that iodine."

He wasn't sure what made him say that, but he was glad he did, as it made Carol burst out into giggles.

"You certainly seem interested in all this immortal stuff." Carol said a moment later as the two walked out of the alley, clearly trying to steer their conversation back to a casual place.

"Who wouldn't be? It's an interesting subject."

Carol nodded in agreement. Suddenly, as they happened to passed by a clock, she suddenly began to panic again.

"_AH_!" She yelped "My break's almost up! I have to get back to work!"

Czeslaw nodded understandingly, as the girl offered her hand in much the same way he had offered his.

"I wish we could talk more." She said, her anger at him having hurt their furry friend seemingly forgotten. "It really was nice meeting you."

"...Same." Czes said, before he asked, "Did you ever publish it? That article of yours. I'd love to read it."

"Um, I can get you a copy if you want." The girl said, still smiling though she was clearly resisting a powerful urge to bolt for the sake of punctuality. "We can read it together next time I have time off. At the park maybe."

"That sounds nice. Why not tomorrow?"

"To moor it is!" The girl said, before running to work with a wave. "Bye Thomas!"

"Goodbye Carol!" Czes said, returning the wave.

It wasn't until the moment after she was gone that Czes noticed he was still smiling. Whatever it was that had just happened, he couldn't exactly say. He had certainly determined that whoever this girl was, she was by absolutely no means a threat to him. And yet, he would still be looking forward to getting a better read on her and what she knew tomorrow.

As he walked back home, Czes dimly noticed that his jacket had a few specks of blood left on it.

* * *

_A/N: __**Ms. Awsamazing:**__ After my last failed attempt at a Baccano! fic I decided to sit back and read my OTP Czes and Carol. And then... WAIT THERE IS NONE._

_**TheCrampReturns**__: Even if these two characters never even meet in either the show or light novels (trust me this isn't the only adorable pairing we write for where that is the case) , we can't help but find the mere prospect of these two adorable. For me, it's mostly because I imagine they'd have a really interesting dynamic, with Carol being a naive and slightly dim-witted optimist, while Czeslaw is a paranoid cynic. Whether it comes out any good is debatable, but it should at least be fun._

_**Ms. Awsamazing: **__Hope you guys enjoyed. If you did (or even if you didn't) read and review._


	2. A Pair Pout and Puzzle in the Park

**AN: **_TheCrampReturns: I apologize in advance if this is too short / wasn't worth the wait. We could have actually had this up nearly a month ago, buuuuuuuuuuuuut...I blame my associate. Oh well, here's another fluffy getting-to-know-eachother thing. I'm hoping to make the next chapter (whenever the heck it is) something __**besides **__a single extended scene, not that there's anyone wrong with it. I'm rather disappointed that I couldn't make this one longer is all. Even with this introduction it barely cracks a thousand words._

_Here's hoping this one doesn't suck too much. If it does/doesn't, tell me in a review. I like those._

* * *

Czes sat at the park bench, kicking his feet in wait. Though living for centuries had done wonders for his sense of patience, Czeslaw was still one to value efficiency. And efficiency meant speed. He recalled Firo once telling him that making guys wait was just a "girl thing". He had disregarded it at the time (like most things Firo said) but now he was wondering if it had a grain of truth to it.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted her. She was hiding behind a tree, rather poorly Czes thought. He put on his best smile and gave her a wave. Realizing her hiding spot had failed, Carol glanced around nervously, and stepped closer... before immediately taking another step back and hiding again. Czeslaw sighed, his mind running through any number or options for why she would be acting like this. Deciding to take matters into his own hands, he Rose and walked over to the tree.

"Hi Carol!" He said, earning a small squeak as he startled the girl. He noticed that in her shaky hands was a copy of the Daily Days.

"Oh, you found it!" He noted cheerfully, attempting to preemptively diffuse whatever problem the girl had with the situation.

"Uh, yep." The girl said, swaying uncomfortably. She quickly held out the paper for him to take, and he did.

"Would you like to sit down?" Czes asked, with Carol nodding apprehensively.

The two sat down on the bench, and Czes read the article. The events documented seemed a tad scattershot, though he recognized a rough approximation of the events aboard The Flying Pussyfoot. Though he appreciated the silence on some level, he had expected at least a bit of commentary and the lack of it was putting him off. He glanced at the girl who was staring at the paper blankly, before locking eyes with him and shrinking away.

Czes silently questioned her behavior before turning the page on the paper. His eyes widened as he realized in an instant why Carol had been acting so odd.

On the page was a picture of Czeslaw himself.

A million questions ran through his head; where and when was that photo even taken? Who took it, and how? And what did this mean for the girl sitting right next to him? Maybe, he reasoned, if she was dim witted enough, he could convince her that that wasn't him.

"Your name isn't really Thomas, is it?" Carol asked quietly. In response Czes raised his hands and nodded his head vigorously.

"Of course not." He said automatically, his eyes irises choosing that moment to shrink, _why_ did he say _**that**_!? Did someone best him over the head with the Stupid Stick while he wasn't looking?

"I mean-!"

"Uh...um, it's ok. Really it is! I won't tell anyone, if that's not what you want!

"You won't tell anyone?" Czes asked incredulously, holding the paper and himself closer to the girl. "Except for the tons of people who are gonna read this paper, you mean!"

"Don'thurtme!" Carol pleaded, scooting away slightly and raising her hands ahead of her face.

Czes opened his mouth to say something else, but paused and tilted his head. Hurt her? Did she really think he was going to do that? Would he? He shook the thought away. Of course he wouldn't. Though he'd be loathe to admit it, he was trying to be better than the man...boy...thing he was not so long ago.

"Carol," he said with a sigh, "look, I'm not gonna hurt you. We... We're friends."

"...we are?" The girl asked, receiving a nod that Czes had meant to be as earnest as possible.

"Just...just promise me you won't publish this, ok? It might draw some...unwanted attention."

"Of course." Carol said, straightening herself up slightly. "Me and the President came to the decision not to publish it anyway."

"Oh. Huh?"

"Well," the girl said, putting a finger to her lips in an attempt to articulate, "he decided that since the story we were telling didn't have any true ending, there was no point in telling it to the public. Yeah...yeah I think I got that right."

"...What? I mean, then...what's the point of even having a newspaper? If that's the case, is there _any_ story that finishes? I mean, it just seems kind of impractical is all- Nevermind! You're not publishing, that's what's important."

"So.." Carol continued, reaching for the paper. "I think we should give this back to the President an-"

"I think we should burn it." Czes said, snatching it back.

"Uh...huh?"

"I don't want to take any chances..."

"...oh."

"Oh?"

"It's just...if we're friends now...I think that you should be able to trust me. You know, when I say that we can keep this under wraps. I'll- I'll even keep it around just me, so no one else at work can do anything with it. O-or at least, I'll let ask the President if I can..."

Czes sighed to himself again as the girls voice petered out. The whole "trust" thing had long ago stopped being his speed, but he figured if it would sate her and thus cause less problems...

"Ok." He said, handing her the paper. She took in with both hands and a smile.

Neither of the two made an effort to move, instead sitting in a silence that grew more comfortable with each each passing moment.

"...Tell me your name." Carol said suddenly, sitting up and kicking her feet lackadaisically.

"You already know it." Czes said with a small smile.

"Yeah, but still." Carol gave a light shrug. "I wanna hear you say it."

Czes was quiet a moment, sparing another glance at the paper, before he began kicking his own legs yet again.

"Czeslaw." He said. "Czeslaw Meyer."

It felt surprisingly nice to tell her. Almost natural.


	3. Carol Gets Multiple ExclusivesSort of

Sat at the dinner table betwixt Ennis and Firo, Czeslaw Meyer once again found himself puzzled as to how much Carol was interested in his life. Her voice rang out in his head...

* * *

_"So what's your family like?" She asked as inquisitive as ever. Czes supposed he had the Daily Days to blame for his new friend's innate curiosity. "I mean...do you have one?"_

_Pondering the question, Czeslaw realized that he had never referred to anyone as family for...a long time. Not since Fermet. A large chill rolled up his spine and he winced at the memory of his psychopathic "caretaker". He felt almost obligated to answer her, however, as her expression softened. She looked like she was preemptively apologetic for any eggshells she might have stepped on, and before he knew what he was saying the words "No no, of course I do!" had rushed out of his mouth._

* * *

Presently, Czeslaw groaned at his own verbal incompetence. Why on Earth had he said that? Why **would** he say that!? He barely knew this girl and yet her emotional state worried him.

"Honestly," Ennis said calmly after Czes had voiced his complaints to her and Firo, "I think it's just because you're a decent person."

"Yeah!" Firo voiced with a chuckle. "Everyone knows a real man doesn't leave a dame in distress, even- no, _especially_ if it's the emotional variety."

Czes scoffed at the couple's blunt idealism. He supposed that people who had such blind faith in him were the closest thing to family he'd ever have.

He knew Ennis was at least familiar with concepts of family (she still occasionally referred to that bastard Szilard as something of a father), and the fact that he referred to her rather formally made it rather easy for them to be confused as Mother and son, which had happened on more the one occasion.

Firo was way more open to the idea of having a little brother, most likely because his place in the Gandor family had left him as the youngest. Czes and Ennis, however, distinctly remembered an instance where Firo broke a man's fingers for calling him "girly". Czes found his insecurity about the whole ordeal quite entertaining.

He wasn't even going to begin with Maiza...

"She wants to meet you guys." Czes said, clarifying it just as much to himself as to them.

"Really? Go for it, kiddo!"

Czes gave Firo a glare. He opened his mouth to remind him for the millionth time that he was centuries old, before deciding not to bother.

"I think it's great you've made a friend." Ennis said with a soft smile. "I'd love to meet her."

Firo snickered, leaning his arm on the table.

"Now that she's said it you _have_ to do it, dontcha?"

Czes sat tight lipped. He knew the Camorista was right.

* * *

"Czes, are you doing alright?" Carol squeaked, Czes deciding to bring her over the next time they met up.

"Of course." Czes said, pulling off a nervous smile. "Just wondering what it's gonna be like when you meet everyone."

'I shouldn't be doing this.' the thing-that-was-not-a-child thought, '"theoretically, you could still back out.' He felt like he was going to have a break down. And the very worst part was, he couldn't tell why for the life of him.

And yet he felt his fist knock against the cold apartment door about four times before he even consciously made a decision. He looked up expecting to see his two... "siblings?", "would-be parental figures?", "roomates?", instead seeing a young golden-eyed brunette in a rather nice suit.

"Hey, kid." A quick Manhattan accent, deeper than Firo's, greeted calmly.

Luck Gandor was a man Czes knew very little about. According to Maiza and Firo, the two shared much in common. The two were gentleman, at least on the surface. A quiet confidence surrounded them and they both had sly tongue, which always seemed ready to fire quips towards Firo. Yet Firo and Luck's bond seemed strong enough to put the Martillos and Gandors on especially good terms.

"You know I'm not a kid." Said Czes, shooting eye-daggers up at the man.

"Oh absolutely." Luck nodded, though his tone was condescending. "It's just a turn of phrase, don't take it personally. Now you might wanna come in, before a draft beats you to it.

"Come on, Czeslaw!" Carol giggled excitedly, following the mafioso into the cozy if slightly messy apartment and sitting next to him on the couch, pulling Czeslaw with her as well.

"Hey, Firo, Czes is here," Luck projected is his voice so it would reach down the narrow apartment hall."And," his golden-flecked eyes strolling to the scraggly flapper girl next to him, "I don't believe I caught your name, little miss."

"O-oh Carol, sir." She fumbled a minute, before extending her hand with a nervous smile. Luck smirked calmly shaking the small girls hand."Luck. It's a pleasure to make her acquaintance ."

Czeslaw concluded the tentative look on Carol's face was due to the strangeness of the name Luck, as it was the same look he once had on his own face. The girl looked like she had literal cogs turning in her head, before her finger snapped up to point at the man.

"_I know! You were in the story too!_"

Luck raised an eyebrow, and before Czeslaw could properly explain, Firo arrived to greet the two.

"AGH!" Carol yelled, her finger shifting to Firo and her face glowing a slight red. "And you're the main character!"

The three immortals shared bemused glances, knowing that this visit would be interesting if nothing else.

* * *

"So she already knows all of us." Firo sighed, sitting at the table with Luck and Czes, after Carol had managed to go on for nearly an hour about her assignment at the Daily Days and how it pertained to all of them. "Not sure whetha' or not I should be flattered that we all almost ended up on tha news."

"I think you're just mad you didn't have a chance to leave a good first impression." Luck said jovially.

"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?"

As the two friends bickered playfully, Czes looked over to Carol, who was deep in conversation with Ennis and a visiting Maiza.

"I certainly think your President has the right philosophy on the story of our lives." The oldest among them said, earning an eager nod from Carol.

"We're all the main character of our own story..." Ennis said to herself, as if tasting the idea and deciding with a smile that she liked it. The feeling of autonomy, of influence. Czes tried desperately to avoid thinking of the bloodied, torturous "friend of the family" who shared a very similar outlook on life.

Before his attempts at suppression could splinter his side of the table, the door burst open and a particularly peculiar pair burst in.

"GREETINGS!" Shouted Isaac and Miria, bowling almost everyone present over in surprise.

"*gasp* These two are my _favorite_!" Said Carol, jumping up to greet the pair of robbers. "I'm Carol! And you're Isaac and Miria! I know all about you two!"

There was a long, drawn out silence, before Isaac and Miria turned to each other, facing away from the others.

"What do you suppose she means, Isaac?" Miria asked in tones that weren't quite hushed enough. "Do you think it's possible she really knows **all** about us?"

"No way." Isaac said. "To know everything about us before she met us would be simply impossible. Unless..."

"Unless?"

"Yes, unless."

Miria gasped, bringing both hands to the sides of her head, oblivious to the look she and Isaac were getting from the others.

"You don't mean she's-!"

"I think Czeslaw's friend must be-!"

The two turned on Carol, pointing a duo of accusatory fingers her way.

"**_A PSYCHIC!_**" They yelled out in sync.

Another moment of silence later, a loud THUNK resonated throughout the room. Had anyone been looking away from Isaac and Miria, they'd have seen the source of the sound to be Czes, having smashed his head into the table in a mixture of disbelief and embarrassment.

The others looked on blankly, while Carol looked as though she had just been accused of a horrible crime.

"I- I- _what_?" She asked, slightly frightened. Before she could get an answer though, she and everyone else heard a chuckle from Czeslaw. And this time, they did turn to look.

With his face still planted firmly on the table, Czes' lips were noticeably turned up in a smile. His light snickering grew into an insane fit of giggles as he lifted his head off the table. Just when Firo was about to ask if there was something wrong with him, Carol let out a few giggles of her own, before bursting out laughing in much the same way. She nearly double do over, the anxiety that was present on her face mere seconds ago long gone.

Firo had no idea what came over him, but he too joined in the fun, the sight of Czeslaw mad with laughter so oxymoronic that it drove him to the same state, slamming his fist on the table. Luck had suffered a similar laughing fit, or rather, as close to a laughing fit as he's ever get. He was leaned back nonchalantly, but his hand was raised to cover his shaking smile. Exchanging a glance, even Enjus and Maiza exchanged soft chuckles.

"Why are they all laughing Isaac?"

"Either they're that happy to see us, or we're right about her being a psychic and it's funny how fast we found out!"

"Yeah, that must be it! Either one if those sounds great to me!"

* * *

Carol and Czeslaw's mood stayed in that area throughout the rest of her visit, and when everyone had given the girl enthusiastic goodbyes, she and Czes finally quieted down on the walk back to the Daily Days.

"Sometimes it still gets to me how you were writing a news story that just so happened to involve all of us..." Czes said as they strolled.

"Well..." said his companion, looking up to the night sky. "I guess life's just like that sometimes. Like a giant web or something. People make their own stories, and you can never be sure who's going to cross with who. In the end, everyone's connected to everyone else...somehow."

Czes sighed contentedly, the two having reached their destination. Turning to the girl, he said,

"I'm glad _we _crossed."

Carol practically had stars in her eyes, and Czes had to use every ounce of willpower not to bust out laughing again.

"M-m-me too!" Carol said, and her visible pride at the comment forced Czes to at least break a smile.

"You should get going." Czeslaw said, and with a nod, the girl ran into her place of work, waving him off.

Czes smiled, and turned to go back home.

_Home._ For some reason, after that day, it got less and less hard to call it that.

**AN: So, this took longer than anyone wanted. We contemplated going into more depth, but we honestly didn't want this to take longer than it did, for reasons. Read, review, tell us how we can improve.**


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